Given his strong commitment to improving the public understanding and appreciation of science, Chris Mooney is thrilled to join the Geoffrey Beene Gives Back® Rock Stars of Science™ campaign in the role of science communication partner. "Our scientists are national heroes, and it's past time they were recognized as such," Mooney says. "The Rock Stars campaign is the most impressive effort I've seen yet to help young people understand the passion and adventure of a research career—and grasp how important it is to maintain our world-class research endeavor in this country."
Mooney is a New York Times bestselling science journalist, author, and commentator. His most recent book, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Out Future (co authored with Sheril Kirshenbaum), lamented the vast gap between scientists and the American public. It focused on statistics like these: Just 18 percent of Americans know a scientist personally, and 44 percent cannot even name a scientific role model. And among those who do come up with a name, their top three choices—Al Gore, Bill Gates, and Albert Einstein—are either not scientists, or not alive.
When it comes to science and the public, Mooney likes to quote his friend--and Charles Darwin's great-great grandson -- Matthew Chapman, the Hollywood screenwriter. As Chapman put it: "Instead of being derided as geeks or nerds, scientists should be seen as courageous realists and the last great heroic explorers of the unknown. They should get more money, more publicity, better clothes, more sex and free rehab when the fame goes to their heads."